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• • <br />worse, if we have a major computer problem that requires us to be <br />down for several days, we do not have any leeway to get our billing <br />back on schedule. In addition, we always encounter problems during <br />the winter holiday season. If a cycle is scheduled for cut-off at <br />Thanksgiving, we might have to push it from that Thursday to the <br />following Monday, which throws our billing cycle off. That same <br />cycle is also effected by Christmas the following month. Once you <br />get behind on a cycle, it is hard to catch up. <br />Because of the above mentioned problems, we sometimes do not get <br />customers their bills until 35+ days have elapsed and I have had <br />customers complain of the time it takes us to bill them. This is <br />especially true when they have an undetected leak. If our bill had <br />reached them sooner, they could have had a plumber rectify the <br />problem at an earlier date. <br />Another problem that I am concerned with is the amount of water a <br />customer could use before their water is disconnected for <br />non-payment. When we read their meter, they have used <br />approximately 30 days of water, it is then approximately 30 days <br />before they are billed for that water and all the time they are <br />still using water. It is 30 days after billing before we can <br />disconnect their water for non-payment, so by the time cut-off <br />rolls around, they have used another 30 days of water for a total <br />of 90 days or three months of water. <br />If we were to reduce the time between mailing the bill and the due date <br />from 20 to 15 days, it would greatly enhance our operations. It would <br />allow us to: <br />Get our billing nearer to the read date by 10 days, this would <br />result in our getting the customer their bill 33% quicker, <br />Collect payment for the services provided in 15 days or 30% <br />quicker, <br />Reduce the City's exposure from non-paying customers by i5 days or <br />17%, and <br />Give the Revenue Collecting Division a period of 5 days between <br />cut-off and billing for each cycle. <br />Attached is a comparison of the 30 and 25 day time periods before water <br />disconnection that will (hopefully) show a graphic presentation of the <br />impact of this change. <br />page 3 <br />